Tag Archives: Vanity Draws Blood

If there is one thing to describe Perspective // Empathy from British metallers Vanity, it is that it is riveting. There are plenty more striking attributes to the five track metalcore tempest, craft and imagination among them, but it offers a fascination which upon personal tastes few similar genre propositions have come close to.

Formed in 2012 and formerly known as Vanity Draws Blood, Vanity has climbed up the UK metal scene with increasing brutality and invention accompanied by an equally ascending amount of acclaim which began simmering with their debut EP, I Witness, released in 2014. From its success, the London sextet began working on a series of works under the title of Perspective. The first in Perspective // Dread appeared to rich praise last year, the single Anxiety which featured CJ McMahon of Thy Art Is Murder leading the way. It is easy to expect that Perspective // Empathy is destined to make an even bigger impact; its body alone establishing Vanity as one of Britain’s most promising and imaginative confrontations.

The EP opens up with the atmospheric enticing of Empathy, the instrumental piece a haunting yet inviting lure with drama and portentous suggestion in its air and elegance in its character before slipping into the waiting jaws of Tranquil. Featuring the warm tones of Lilly Macieira, the track explodes on ears, guitars winding venomously around them as rhythms pounce to spear the senses. To the aggression though, there is an instinctive catchiness which fuels grooves and the overall surge of the song, an infectiousness which even infests the uncompromising assault of raw throated, emotionally open vocals. Alongside an inventive unpredictability and imagination festers and boils over, the subsequent duel vocal attack of varying discontent and subsequent melodic temptation lying at the heart of the track’s captivating evolution. Add Macieira’s almost angelic presence and it is a song which enthrals.

Sorrow swiftly follows, it too emerging from a suggestive harmonic calm with ferocious intent and wind but equally with that wealth of undisguised enterprise and imagination. Stabbing beats and bone shaking riffs devour as melodies and vocal dexterity blossom, every second a fresh adventure but united in the flowing and certainly uncompromising yet inviting storm. As all tracks, with every listen a new depth and side to elements within the song emerge and though it is fair to say that just on the initial engagement the EP and its contents stir the appetite real fascination grows with every submission to the fire.

Again Macieira features on the EP’s fourth track, opening Extrovert with her harmonic caress as melodies cradle her presence. In time the mellow temptation becomes the bed for emotive and physical turbulence where vocals and guitars are almost in conflict within their intensive unity, a fight which ignites the ire and creative dexterity skilfully consuming ears. Clean vocals in turn rise from within that fire, just part of the imaginative depth and adventure persuading ears and pleasure.

Final track Affinity is more of the same but individual in its tapestry of sound and imagination, contrasts and extremes coming together in a kaleidoscope of sound and emotion just gripping attention. It is a magnetic close to an encounter which dares you to look away even for a second and miss something memorable, a challenge impossible to take on.

We would say Perspective // Empathy needs time to truly blossom in ears though as mentioned earlier it undoubtedly pleasures from its first breath; in return though the rewards increase and impress. The final line of the press release for the EP suggests that the sextet of Kerrie Alexander, Ryan Stevens, Elliot Plummer, Charles Jones, and Luke Jervis is one “of the most exciting and original bands at the vanguard of the UK scene.” There is nothing within the new EP to suggest otherwise.

Furian is one of the emerging bands being highly spoken of within the UK rock scene and they certainly do their growing reputation no harm with new single/video What’s Up. The track is a powerful slice of the band’s post hardcore flavoured rock ’n’ roll, a fierce and imaginative encounter which suggests this is a band worth checking out further.

Formed in 2014, Furian quickly lit up the Liverpool music scene with their live presence and debut single/video Now I Know. Since then, the quartet of vocalist/guitarist Dan Martin Hall, guitarist Joe Strode, bassist Abhi Tee, and drummer Damien Campbell have released a well-received EP, undertaken a UK tour and shared stages with the likes of They Say Fall and Vanity Draws Blood. What’s Up is Furian’s next step in their rise, a proposition fuelled by potential hard to ignore.

The song instantly descends on the senses with a wall of hefty rhythms and ear entangling sonic confrontation driven by the raw vocal attack of Hall. It is ferocity though with an underlying infectiousness and melodic intrigue which blossoms as clean vocals and harmonies float with warm melodic enterprise. The band continues to combine both extremes across the song, increasingly venturing into the mellower invention of their imagination with guitars and voice a mesmeric proposal perfectly contrasted by the harsher expulsions of sound and emotion.

There is an essence of Deftones to the ‘milder’ side of the track and Hall’s calmer vocals and a fierceness ventured into by vocalist and song which hints at the likes of Underoath and Hopesfall, yet combined it emerges with a freshness all of the Furian making.

What’s Up is maybe not a game changer for Furian but it certainly adds to their rising stock and reputation while hinting of greater things to come.

The RingMaster Review

The RingMaster

Music writer/reviewer and band/release promo/bio writer.
Artists previously worked with include: In Vain, The Capsules, Solar Halos, Seneron, Crashgate, Able Archer, Machine Rox, Fahran, Centre Excuse, Evanstar, and many more as well as FRUK and Pluggin' Baby.

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Presenter of The Bone Orchard and RingMaster Review podcasts promoting the best underground bands and sounds from metal to rock, punk to noise and more; continually presenting the cream of new independent releases across all genres.

Dark poet at The Carnivale of Dark Words and Shadows http://carnivaleofdarkwordsandshadows.webs.com

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